It is with great sadness that I morn Darline’s passing. As HobiePhil noted… Darline’s tireless efforts at developing and maintaining a level playing field for those of us racing handicap was fundamental to our enjoyment of the sport. Darline was a dedicated one design Thistle racer, but first and foremost, she was a sailor who recognized the need for a national sanctioned handicap system that was as fair and accurate as possible. She once told me how important handicap racing was to the many new and casual racers who would start racing and initially they could care less about the results. All that math. Decimal minutes??? Four crazy rating numbers. Beufort what? etc … and slowly but surely they would become a sailboat racer and appreciate the role of the Portsmouth system and then ultimately migrate into one design racing. She uniquely had her finger on the pulse of small boat sailing in the USA as she worked with both Dinghy and Catamaran clubs. She was an incredible stand for the accuracy and fairness of the rating tables. Anyone who had an issue could speak with her and get a fair answer and an invitation to assist in improving the ratings. She could never understand why catamaran sailors had this incredible need to change their boats from the standard one design configuration. From her point of view, this wasn’t sailboat racing and NONE of the other dinghy classes had this strange need to tweak their boat. Nevertheless, Darline found a way to accommodate the crazy racing that us crazy catamaran sailors wanted to do. Her contribution to our sport is irreplaceable. So, Here! Here! to Phil’s point that Darline’s enormous contribution to our sport has been felt by every sailor who has ever raced Portsmouth!
Back in the day of the classic large one design classes of Hobie’s, Prindles, Nacra’s, Supercats, Sharks, Darts, etc etc… Handicap racing was pretty small but administered by an organization called NAMSA under the supervision of Herb Malm. NAMSA used a proprietary formula and race data to generate the ratings tables. When I started racing a lonely Dart 18 in the USA, I discovered that this system generated a new race table each and every time you requested a fax from Herb. My first year of racing was under three handicap numbers. Winning or losing was a function of dumb luck on my part and luck at where the rating landed that weekend. Needless to say… this was not particularly fun for a newbie sailor. Fortunately for the world, Darline took over US Sailings Portsmouth Committee and I remember my very first conversation with her as Prindle Fleet 25 considered switching from NAMSA to USSA Portmsouth. Darline simply exuded integrity and fairness over the phone and as every scorekeeper in the country well knows… she requested I send to her the fleet’s race data from last year. I persuaded Prindle Fleet 25, soon to be CRAC, to switch over to USSA. The bar talk over ratings dropped to almost nothing. Over the years, I had the opportunity to serve on her PN committee and assist her in collecting race data and my admiration for her professionalism only grew. Our conversations were always on the phone and so I remember the day that John Williams casually remarked that Darline was really sharp for a lady who was in her 70’s…. You could have knocked me over with a feather since her vitality led you to believe that she was in her 40’s. Her passing is still unreal.
CRAC would like to make a $100 contribution in her memory to a worthy sailing organization and we invite other clubs and One Design Classes to join us in creating a small amount of recognition for her enormous contributions and the spectacular person that she was.
Sail On Diane and Thank You!
Mark Schneider
CRAC
